Fairytales
by mokimik
Summary: Hermione has to baby-sit in her Holiday after her 4th year. Read how she's trying to put her neighbours daughter to sleep with some original fairy-tales, based on her Hogwarts-life...
1. The girl in the secret chamber

_I don't own Harry Potter... Evelyn is made up by me, but that's where it stops_

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"Will you please go to bed now?"

"Nooo... Hermione, you have to tell me a story!"

Hermione sighed while as the five-year-old jumped on and off the bed. She had volunteered to baby-sit the neighbour's child because they had an important convention, but she had forgotten how annoying five-year-olds could be. After throwing a tantrum about having to eat peas, running through the house, playing horsy on Hermione's back and stealing some cookies from the cookie-jar, Evelyn should have been exhausted. Hermione knew that she herself was.

There was one problem however: Evelyn wasn't.

It wasn't as if the girl was really annoying, or that Hermione hated to baby-sit. After all, she had done it last summer too. It was just that she hadn't slept that well the last few weeks.

"All right then...but will you promise to go to bed after the story?"

Evelyn nodded.

Hermione's eyes wandered over the books that stood on a shelf above Evelyn's bed. _Unicorns, leprechauns, trolls..._the girl obviously liked fantasy-books. After hesitating slightly, wondering if she would be able to suppress her laughter while reading it, Hermione choose Mathilda.

Evelyn had gotten in bed, and Hermione sat down on the end of the bed, but just as she went to open the book, Evelyn began to complain.

"No, not that story again! I know that one already! I want a new story!"

"Well, then," said Hermione, "which book do you want?"

With one jump, Evelyn stood up on her bed, looking at the books on the shelf.

"I know them all! You have to make one up!"

"But... but... about what?"

For a minute, Evelyn was silent. Then she sat down on her bed again, and said:

"About your school! You are always away for so long, you must do nice things!"

"About my school, hmm? Well, okay. But first, you have to promise me something."

"What?" The little girl's eyes grew wider.

"You must promise that you will never tell anyone about my school. You know, it's a secret school," she whispered.

"Really? Why?"

"Well, the school is for wizards and witches. They teach magic there."

As she spoke, Hermione led Evelyn back under the blankets and tucked her in.

"The school is called Hogwarts. And in my year at school, I have some nice friends."

"What are their names?"

"Harry and Ron."

"Harry and Ron? Those are stupid names."

"Yes, but Harry and Ron are very nice. You see, Harry is famous."

"Famous?"

"Yes, famous. When Harry was only a baby, a mean wizard tried to kill him."

"Really?"

"Really. But Harry lived, and the wizard got himself killed. That's what we thought, at least."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, in our first year, four years ago, Harry saw the evil wizard again. And Ron and I have helped Harry to shoo him away..."

"How?"

"Well, the evil wizard was looking for a stone – a great stone full of magic, which could make him more evil, and stronger. The stone was guarded, but the evil wizard managed to get through the obstacles and Harry, Ron and I wanted to stop him. So Ron and I helped Harry to get past the obstacles. There was a plant that tried to strangle us, and a three-headed dog that tried to eat us, and we had to find a key, and fight a troll...But we did it, and all those things are gone now..." She hesitated for a moment, not really sure how to end it well...

"And... and...they lived happily ever after!"

But Evelyn didn't like the ending. In fact, she didn't like the story at all.

"That's all? What a stupid story! I don't think that you are telling the truth!"

"Well," said Hermione, unsure of how to take criticism of a story about her own life, "What's supposed to happen in a good story?"

For a moment, there was a pensive look, as far as a child of that age could have one. Then she shrugged, and said, "There is supposed to be girl and a boy and an hero, and a monster and an evil person and...

"Okay. okay, I get it. Let me think." she sighed, irritated that the girl wasn't easily pleased.

"Okay, I got something," she said. If her own life-story wouldn't be good enough, she just had to tell someone else's, didn't she?

"Long ago, in a land, far frome here, there lived a little girl. The girls name was... ehm... Ginevra."

"Ginevra? That's a stupid name!" Evelyn whined.

"Well, then, you name her!"

Evelyn looked taken aback, but after a few silent moment, she answered:

"She should be called Ginny."

"Really?" Hermione grinned.

"Yes."

"Okay. Well, Ginny was a little girl. She had a lot of other siblings, but they were all brothers. There was Bill, who was the eldest, Charlie, who was the adventurest, Percy, who was the know-it-all, Fred and George, twins who were the funniest, and Ron, who was the... ehm..." She got stuck. How could you stereotype Ron?

"Well, Ron was the friendliest of them all. And on the day our tale begin, Ginny was excited, because she would go, along with her brothers, to the boarding school she had heard so much about from her brothers. Ginny had bought her books with her mom a couple days before, had gotten a school uniform and other supplies. Most of the things were second-hand, because Ginny's family wasn't very rich and had a lot of children, but she was happy with it none the less.

In one of her second-handed schoolbooks, there had been a diary. A magical one, Ginny had discovered. Because the moment you would write something in it, the diary would write back."

"Like a penpall?" Evelyn interrupted.

"Yes, like a penpall, but one that didn't exist. Ginny had discovered that the diary that wrote back was called Tom, and that it had his own opinions and everything.

There was another reason Ginny was so excited to go to school: She had a crush. On one of Ron's best friends, Harry. Harry was a bit famous: he had defeated an evil wizard when he was little." At this, Evelyn rolled her eyes. Hermione was surprised that a five-year-old could have such a strong opinion.

"Ginny hoped that she would learn to act a bit cool around him, because every time she saw him now, she just got red and didn't know what to say anymore. She had also told Tom about Harry. And Tom was pretty interested in him too. He had asked her a lot and Ginny, glad to tell someone about her crush, had gladly obliged.

Her life was good. She had someone who listened to her, difficult classes she had always longed for, and a few brothers around her. But it didn't stay that way. Ginny felt that she was getting sick. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she knew that there was something wrong with herself."

"What was it?" Evelyn demanded.

"Well, I get to that in a second. You don't want me to spoil you, do you?" Evelyn shook her head.

"Ginny got memory-losses. She couldn't remember what she had done at certain times. Sometimes, during a class, or in the weekends, it looked like she had dozed of, and then had woken up, not knowing what she had dreamed. One day, she was covered in feathers, the other day, she had been all slimy and dirty.

And that was not the only thing that was wrong. People from her boarding school got attacked. They turned into stone and no one, not even the Headmaster, could stop the attacks. Ginny got scared. a lot of people told her that it had been the heir of Slytherin, who had done this. It was a legendary monster, who had been active in the school some years ago.

But Ginny had one relief: she could write everything in her Diary. Tom was understanding, and though he was sometimes a bit weird, Ginny liked to tell him everything. Tom came with explanations why Ginny sometimes had memory losses: she was just overworked. She was just stressed, or had gotten a cold.

There came more and more attacks, and Ginny got more scared. She started to realise that every time there had been an attack, she couldn't remember where she had been. she couldn't remember what she had done at that moment. So, even more scared, she wrote it to Tom. But Tom didn't react. He said nothing back.

Now, Ginny got terrified. What if her Diary had something to do with her memory-loss? What if her Diary had something to do with those attacks? There was a date on the back of the cover, that told her that her Diary came from the same time as the last time the Heir of Slytherin had been active.  
When Ginny 'woke' the day after, standing in a bathroom, not knowing what she had done, but with only her Diary in her hands, she threw the Diary away, in a toilet, in blind panic.

Meanwhile, Ginny also had Harry Potter to worry about. She didn't see him as much as she would have wanted, but there were enough occasions to see him and feel the jolts of butterflies in her stomach. She knew, however, that Harry barely saw anything in her, and that if he saw her, he only saw Ron's little sister. She needed to do something about that. So when one of her teachers had rented some cupids on Valentine's Day, Ginny took her chance.

With all her poetical effort, she wrote a poem for Harry, and then asked one of the cupids if he could bring it for her to Harry. The cupid, who was actually a dwarf dressed as a cupid, did so when Ginny was in the same corridor as Harry. She saw how Harry felt embarrassed, and was being kicked by the dwarf, who then sat on his legs to tell the poem. Ginny felt a bit embarrassed herself: she had realised that Harry would never like her more if she managed to embarrass him. But she felt even more stupid, she felt even more scared, when she saw what had rolled out of Harry's bag: It was her Diary!

The same Diary she had told everything to about Harry, and how much she liked him! The same diary she had spilled all her secrets and tales in! What if Harry would find out how it worked? What if- her breath had stopped for a moment, there- Tom would tell her everything?

For a few days, Ginny was in agony. She had to get that Diary back!

Then one day, when she knew that there would be no one in the boys' dormitory, she ran upstairs.

It took her some time to figure out where Harry had put the Diary, but she found it. Tom was not very happy to see her back, but Ginny ignored it. She had missed him, and she was far to happy to have it back, without any of her secrets spilled.

But what she couldn't ignore was the fact that the memory-losses had come back. But she told herself that the heir of slytherin, her memory-loss and her diary probably had nothing to do with each other." Evelyn shook her head.

"It had, hadn't it?"

"Yes, it actually had. And the diary grew stronger and stronger because Ginny kept spilling all her secrets in it. And then…." She paused dramatically and also to take a sip of a glass of water.

"What? What?"

"The diary got even more evil. It demanded that little Ginny would go to a secret room in the school. There, Tom appeared out of the diary, as a real human."

Evelyn gasped and held her hands before her mouth.

"Ginny had been knocked out, and for a moment, it seemed as if she would die."

She took another sip, glancing at Evelyn and frowning. Maybe she could keep the story a bit less exciting: the girl now almost had tears in her eyes. Time to alter the story a bit and make a more happy ending out of it than it actually was.

"But her brother and Harry had followed her into that secret room. Ron had to stay behind, because his leg was injured, but Harry had followed Ginny and Tom into the secret room and the moment Tom had erupted from the diary, Harry had started to fight him.

"He's strong, isn't he?" Hermione nodded.

"Yes, Harry was very strong. And it didn't take him long before he had managed to put Tom back in the diary, and he was able to destroy the little book.

He then rescued Ginny from the chamber, and brought her to the nurse. There, while Ginny was lying in the bed, he told her that he actually loved her, and would never leave her again. And they lived happily ever after."

Evelyn looked content, but also tired. She quickly kissed the girl on her forehead. "Time to sleep now."

"Hermione, that was a good story. Will you tell me again when you come baby-sit?"

"I have more stories," she whispered, glad with the compliment. "I will tell you another one that's just as good. Good night."

Before Hermione had closed the door, Evelyn had fallen asleep.

She walked downstairs and fell on the couch. It would take the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Gutlin another few hours to come home. In that time she would have to clean the kitchen, (Evelyn had made a real mess of the peas she had been supposed to eat) but that could wait.

Grabbing her bag, Hermione pondered for a moment. She wished that real life could be as simple as a fairy-tale sometime.

Although she had been home for only a couple days since her fourth year had ended, she had already received tree letters, whom all needed an answer. She stared at the first one, from Ginny. She told Hermione that they were moving to Snuffles' old home, with some other "friends", of which Hermione could assume they were all there on Dumbledore's orders. The house was in a terrible state, and Ginny told her the nightmares about her 1st year were coming back. Sighing, worried about her friend, she started the letter. It was clear to her that life was far from a fairy tale.

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_Hope you liked it! There are still 2 other chapters coming, that's why I don't tell what the other 2 letters contain..._

_The Evelyn-character here is not the same one as the Evelyn that's appearing in my story "Ginny, Hermione and the half-blood-prince". I'm just really lousy with names, and I like the name "Evelyn"_

_leave a review if you have some time!_

_x-mokimik-x_


	2. The rat in the cage

_I don't own JK Rowlings masterart. I'm just an 18-year-old girl who loves to write and practise her English._

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"But I don't want to go to bed! I'm a big girl! I'm almost five and a half!" Evelyn whined when Hermione had suggested (okay, demanded) for the fourth time that evening that Evelyn should go to bed.

"Yes, but even big girls need their sleep too," she said, rubbing her own eyes. Mr. and Mrs. Gutlin were away again, to another convention of their work. She didn't mind the extra pocket-money it had given her, but since she had trouble with sleeping since Cedric had died, she slowly felt a head ache creeping up.

As if the girl had sensed her thoughts and felt pity, Evelyn suddenly said: "Okay…. But you have to tell me another story!"

She walked the girl upstairs, looked over her when she brushed her teeth, and tugged her in.

"Okay, so what's it have be about?"

"Did Tom really disappear?" Evelyn asked with a small voice.

Not wanting to give the real answer, she said: "Of course he did. He's never been seen since Harry killed him."

She hadn't known the story had made such an impact on the girl.

"Okay, then I want to hear the same story!"

"But that's a bit lame," Hermione replied, not sure why she didn't want to tell the sae story. "What about if I tell you about what happened with Harry that next year?"

"Is it exciting?"

Hermione nodded.

"Is Ginny in it?"

"Uhm, no…. but another girl is!"

"Does she love Harry too?"

"No, only as a friend," she said, remembering the articles Rita Skeeter had produced this year.

"Okay, what's her name?"

"Hermione?"

"No, you are already Hermione!"

"There can be more Hermione's!"

"I don't know more people who are called Hermione!" Evelyn replied stubbornly.

"What name does she have to have then?"

"Evelyn! Or no…. Sophie!"

"Sophie?"

"Yes, that's the name of my friend! She's the one who has a Barbie who can speak and if your comb her hair it…"

Hermione tuned off, thinking about how she would start with this one. Her third year had been far more complicated.

"that's nice," she interrupted Evelyn. "Let's start the story, shall we?"

Evelyn nodded.

"Not so long ago, there were four friends. They all had very funny names, because they could turn into animals. Remus was called "Moony", and could turn into a wolf. Peter was called "Wormtail", and could turn into a rat. Sirius was called "Padfoot", and could turn into a dog. And James was called "Prongs", and could turn into a stag."

"What's a stag?"

"It's another word for a deer.

The friends were very happy together, and they kept it a secret from every one that they could turn into animals. When they were done with school, James married Lily, the girl he was in love with, and-"

"Is the story already over?"

"Huh? No, why?"

"Mostly, people only marry at the end of the story."

"Well, not in this one. Actually, when they got married, the problems started."

"Didn't they love each other?"

"Of course they did. But an evil wizard was angry at them, because Lily and James were trying to stop him from growing in power. The wizard was so angry at them, that he wanted them dead."

Evelyn gasped.

"So they went into hiding. Only one person knew where they could be found. Everyone thought it was Sirius, the friend who could turn into a dog. But then, something terrible happened. Lily and James were murdered. They had been betrayed."

Hermione saw that she was actually scaring Evelyn a bit, so she quickly proceeded.

"Everyone thought Sirius had betrayed them, so he was locked up in prison. The only one who had survived the dark wizard, was the little son of James and Lily. He was called Harry."

Evelyn scrunched up her nose. "Harry again?"

"Yes, Harry again," she said determinedly, not wanting another discussions about names. "The evil wizard had been conquered not long after he had murdered Lily and James and Harry had to live with his aunt and uncle, until he was old enough to enter the wizard school."

"He was a wizard too?"  
"Yes, they all were, but only a few were evil," Hermione explained quickly. Evelyn nodded, as if it sounded very logical.

"When Harry was 11, he was allowed to go to that school. He enjoyed it very much, and quickly had made friends, Ron and Sophie were their names. Harry didn't know much about his parents' deaths, but in his third year, something terrible happened. Sirius escaped from the prison."

Evelyn gasped.

"Someone told Harry about how Sirius had betrayed his parents, and Harry felt very angry when he heard about it. Ron and Sophie did everything to prevent Harry from seeking Sirius. But he didn't seem to listen to them.

A few months passed, and no one knew where Sirius had gone to. But Sophie had other problems too. She wanted to know everything, and had taken a lot of classes. To all follow them, she was able to time travel back in time. But she got very tired of that, so sometimes, she snapped at her friend Ron. He was angry at her for snapping, and also because Sophie's cat wanted to eat his rat. And his rat was already sick.

Anyway, no one knew why, but a few weeks later, the rat had vanished. Ron thought he had been eaten, but Herm- I mean, Sophie thought he had just escaped. They were more worried about Harry, though."

"Why? What happened?"

"Sirius had been seen near the school." He seemed to want to kill Harry."

Evelyn gasped. "Did he?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, but something else happened. One evening, when Sophie, Harry and Ron walked over the grounds of the school, Ron suddenly saw his rat, lying in the grass!"

"What? He had accused Sophie for nothing?"

"Yes, Sophie was a bit angry for that, but before she could say anything, a huge dog had come from the forest nearby, and had taken Ron's foot."

Evelyn gasped again, her hands for her mouth. "But… that's Sirius!!! He can transform into a dog!!!"

"Yes it was, but Harry, Ron and Sophie didn't know that he could turn into a dog! The dog took Ron to a tree, where a hole had been made under the ground. Sophie and Harry followed them, and quickly saw that it was a secret tunnel! At the end of it were a few rooms, and on one of it, they found Ron, and Sirius, who had transformed back into a human."

Evelyn shrieked. "Did he kill them?"

Hermione shook her head. "No he didn't. At first, Harry, Ron and Sophie were too shocked to do anything, and didn't believe anything of what Sirius was saying. Soon, however, they listened. Sirius told them that he wasn't the one who had betrayed Lily and James! He hadn't even known where they had went into hiding! Another old friend had known, though, and Sirius was the only one who had known who that friend was. It was Peter who had betrayed them."

Hermione paused, taking a sip from the water that stood at the nightstand.

"Now, Evelyn, do you remember in what sort of animal Peter could transform?"

"A wolf… no, wait.." Her eyes got big and she gasped, "a rat! Ron's pet is Peter!" she shrieked.

"Yes indeed! And Ron still had Peter in his hands after he found them. The rat was squealing and twisting, but Ron hadn't let him go. Sirius transformed Peter back in his human form to prove that he was right, and Sophie had never seen Harry so angry. They had tied Peter up, and wanted to go to the headmaster of the school, to tell everything. Sirius went also with them."

"So everything went out okay?"

"Wait, little squirt, I'm not done yet. When they came outside of the secret hole, Peter transformed back into a rat and tried to escape. Sirius ran after him to stop him, but they all had forgotten one thing."

"What? What??"

"There were guards around the school, trying to capture Sirius. They didn't know Sirius hadn't done anything. So they captured him, and locked him in the tower near the school."

"What?? But what happened to Peter?"

"He escaped. Ron, Sophie and Harry turned directly to the school, to warn the Headmaster, and he believed their story. He made a plan with Sophie. They had to use Sophies device to travel through time. Ron couldn't come along, he was still injured at his foot. But Harry went along."

"What did they do?"

"At the moment that the real Ron, Harry and Sophie were telling the headmaster what happened, Sophie and Harry who had travelled back in time were saving Sirius from that tower."

"How?"

Hermione considered that telling her about the big half-bird, half-hoarse wasn't a good move. A muggle-girls-imagination would only stretch so far.

"They… uhm… they flew, on the broomsticks. They were wizards, after all, weren't they?"

Evelyn eyed her sceptically, but nodded.

"Sirius quickly escaped on one of their brooms. After that, Harry and Sophie sprinted back to the school. They had to be back in time, because if they wouldn't, their other forms would have started to travel back in time already, and people could accuse them of helping Sirius."

Hermione saw that the time-travelling part was confusing Evelyn a lot, but was fairly sure she at least had understood the last part of the sentence.

"They came back in time and when other people discovered Sirius had been gone, they couldn't accuse Harry or Sophie from helping. Now, Sirius is living happily. He's still on the run, but likes it better than the prison he's been in."

Evelyn smiled. "The end?"

"Yes. The end."

"But… wait…" Evelyn looked at her.

"What?" Hermione asked, though she had a feeling she would know what was bothering Evelyn.

"What about Peter? He escaped also! Is he also still free?"

Again, Hermione couldn't bear to give the real answer. Quickly, she came up with a lie. "No. You see, Sirius had hunted down Peter not long after that. People wouldn't believe his story though, so instead that Peter was thrown into prison, Sirius made Peter his own prison. As a rat, he threw Peter in a rat-cage, and took him with him wherever he went."

Evelyn laughed.

"Goodnight," she said, kissing the girl on her forehead, and tucking her in tightly.

"Goodnight, Hermione," Evelyn said.

Hermione walked downstairs. The story had been very simple when compared to the truth, and the end off course had been very different, but it still felt good to hear she could actually entertain people with it.

Her bag burned with the two other letters she hadn't replied to yet. One was from Harry. He sounded distant, and angry for not knowing anything. Hermione had a feeling that Harry was feeling left out and had difficulties with what happened in the graveyard last month. She sighed, feeling worried. Then, she took out a pencil and some paper.

_Dear Harry,_

_I'm sorry this letter will be short: I promise m next one will be longer. I'm currently baby-sitting at my neighbours house. Evelyn, a 5-year old, seems to be keen at wizard stories. _

_I hope you are well. Try not to worry too much about everything that happened this past year: Dumbledore is probably taking care of it as we speak, and like Hagrid said: what would come, would come, and we will have to meet it when it does._

_I haven't heard anything from Ron, either. __Ginny told me their busy with moving, though. She was very vague. _

_I hope I can see you all very soon. Here's everything so… normal._

_Hugs, _

_Hermione. _

She stared at her letter when it was done, feeling a slight knot of guilt in her stomach as she re-read the last lines. She knew that with sending those few lines, she had to disappoint the last letter, that burned in her bag…..

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_Hope you liked this chapter too! _

_The next chapter is my least favorite one, and also the reason why this story took me forever to put online,cause I kept changing it..._

_Keep reading!_

_x/mokimik/x_


	3. The princess in the wizardwar

_I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters_

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"Another story, another story!"

The moment Hermione had stepped foot inside the Gutlin-house, Evelyn had talked about nothing else but her previous bed-time stories. It pleased Hermione to know that the girl actually liked her stories, and it pleased her even more to see she could hold it as a treat above the little one's head. If she wasn't behaving herself before dinner, no bed-time story. It saved Hermione quite some time in cleaning the mess after Evelyn would have been gone to bed.

Now the girl was actually ready to go to bed, she had to keep her promise; Evelyn had kept hers and had behaved.

"Okay, okay, I get it. Well, let me think...Okay, I think I've got something."

She had been thinking the whole afternoon. It would be hard for her to tell Evelyn exactly what happened this year at her school. Partly, because it was still fresh in her memory, but partly also because though her second year had had an happy ending, and her third year she had made an happy ending, this one would be hard to turn into a happy ending. She would have to make it more fairy-taled, and less true.

"Long ago, there was a land that was many days' journey from here, called... um...Bulgaria." Evelyn giggled at the name.

"And in this land there reigned a handsome prince. He was tall, and strong and sweet, and everything every princess longed for." She looked at Evelyn.

"Isn't this about Harry, Ron and Sophie?"

"No, it's not."

Evelyn pouted. "But what about Ginny and Harry?"

"Well, they already lived happily ever after, remember? There's not much to tell about them anymore."

Evelyn nodded hesitant. Hermione proceeded:

"But the prince hadn't found a princess. So he travelled to a land that was a bit nearer to us, because there was a challenge and a ball. He hoped that he could find a princess there.

"First, there was the challenge. The prince had to fight a dragon and steal a dragon egg, but he wasn't allowed his sword. He only got a wand. And besides the prince, there were two other noblemen who also had to fight a dragon. The first one, Sir Cedric, transformed a stone into a dog, in the hope that the dragon wouldn't notice anything but the dog. It seemed to work, but suddenly..." Evelyn gasped.

"Suddenly, the dragon did see him, and it burned him." When a frightened look crossed Evelyn's face, Hermione added: "Only a little bit, mind you. The dragon was mean, but not that mean.

Then, it was the prince's turn. He waved his wand at the dragon, but nothing happened – it just made the dragon angry. The prince... let's call him... um... Vict...Vincent... um, yes... Vincent got a bit scared. He had forgotten that dragons couldn't be easily harmed by magic."

"Then what happened?" Evelyn asked. Hermione smiled a bit. She seemed to be telling this story much better than she had thought. It seemed more like a story then like the truth.

"Well, Prince Vic-, I mean, Prince Vincent, thought long and hard. And then he remembered that the weakest point of a dragon was its eyes. So, he shot the dragon in the eyes. The dragon was blinded for a moment, and in that time, Prince Vincent snuck to the nest, took the egg out, and returned to the other people who had been watching him. Everybody screamed and was happy for Prince Vincent. Then it was the last knight's turn. His name was Sir Harry."

"Sir Harry? What knight is called Harry? That's not a real knight's name! You always like to add a 'Harry' in your story."

"Okay, what do you think he should be called?" Hermione sighed.

"Sir Harold."

"Okay, then we shall call him Sir Harold. It was Sir Harold's turn. And Sir Harold was actually a bit smarter than Prince Vincent and Sir Cedric. He conjured a broom and flew into the air to distract the dragon, then he flew down very fast and took the egg."

"That's not fair!"

"How come?"

"He made it too easy!"

Explaining to Evelyn that Harry had taken just as much of a risk, maybe even more with the dangerous dragon he'd gotten, would be too hard, so Hermione changed the story a bit.

"Well, that's what the rest of the people also said. So Sir Harold wasn't allowed to come to the ball and Prince Vincent was the winner."

"Is this the end?" the five-year-old asked. "Because then it's a stupid story. I liked the stories you told me about Harry, Sophie and Ron much more."

"No, no, this isn't the end. Not by far. They had to go to the ball first, remember?" Evelyn nodded, but still looked critical.

"Okay. So, Sir Harold understood he wasn't allowed to come; he stayed home. But he had also brought two other people with him to the challenge, and they were still allowed to attend the ball. One was the brave and handsome Sir Ronald. Ronald was the best friend of Sir Harold. The other one was a princess. She was also a very good friend of Harold. She wasn't that beautiful, but she was smart and liked to read and she was always around when Sir Harold or Sir Ronald needed her help." She glanced at the girl, but it didn't seem to recognize that the story seemed to get the same characters as yesterday.

"Her name was... Princess..." She couldn't come up with a name. If she would say Sophie, Hermione was sure Evelyn would recognize it, and it seemed to make the story more real once she did. She looked at Evelyn. "Do you know a good name for the princess?"

"Um...Princess Evelyn!"

"Okay, so her name was Princess Evelyn. She and Sir Ronald were allowed to go to the ball."

She hesitated for a moment, but then decided that it wouldn't matter if the girl heard it. Evelyn hadn't noticed that Sophie and princess Evelyn were the same, let alone recognize that they were symbolizing the girl sitting next to her.

"Princess Evelyn always had liked Sir Ronald a lot, so she hoped that he would notice her, and ask her to the ball. But Sir Ronald was a bit foolish: he was looking around, to take a girl that was more pretty than Princess Evelyn. And right before the ball, Prince Vincent noticed Princess Evelyn. He thought the princess was beautiful enough. So he asked her to come to the ball with him. And Princess Evelyn was of course very flattered and she knew that she couldn't expect an invitation from Sir Ronald, so she said yes."

"And then what? Did they live happily ever after?"

But Hermione was by this point enjoying the story too much to end it there.

"No, no, not by far. The ball wasn't over yet, was it?"

When Evelyn didn't answer, but only nodded a bit, she continued, "Prince Vincent tried and tried, but he didn't understand anything about Princess Evelyn. He didn't know that she would have liked it more to go out with Sir Ronald; he just thought that she didn't love Prince Vincent enough.

In fact, Princess Evelyn had a wonderful time at the ball, but she thought the whole time that she would've have a better time if she had gone out with Sir Ronald. So, instead of trying to have a good time, and forget about the stupid guy that hadn't asked her, she asked Prince Vincent to get her some drinks and went to find Sir Ronald. Sir Ronald was angry at her, though: Princess Evelyn was going out with the opponent of Sir Harold! How could she do that? He didn't understand that Princess Evelyn had only said 'yes' because he hadn't asked her himself! Princess Evelyn didn't wait for Prince Vincent to come with the drinks: she had screamed in a very un-princess-manner at Sir Ronald, and went to the Royal toilets to cry about it."

Hermione saw that Evelyn was absorbing every word she said. Pleased, she continued:

"Prince Vincent, meanwhile, had fallen in love with Princess Evelyn. But he also had to return home to rule his own land, so he asked Princess Evelyn if she would come with him.

Princess Evelyn told him she'd have to think about it: It was a very hard choice to make; Prince Vincent did love her, but she didn't love him. She could go with him and try to love him: she hadn't really tried, after all. Or, she could stay here. She liked Sir Ronald, though he obviously didn't like her back." She took a breath, thinking about what should come next.

"But before Princess Evelyn could make up her mind, something terrible happened."

Evelyn looked up.

"What happened?"

"Well, I haven't told you about the Dark Wi- I mean, King, yet, have I?"

Evelyn shook her head.

"He was very mean, and wanted to rule over all the lands in the world. Sir Harold had defeated him once, but now he was back, and more cruel and angry than the last time. He had came back to revenge himself on Sir Harold,. First, he killed Sir Cedric."

"No!"

"Yes, I'm afraid so," said Hermione. She felt some tears behind her eyes. "But, Sir Harold managed to escape from the dark king again. He had to go into hiding to fight against the dark king, and so did Ronald and his family, because they all were in great danger. They asked Princess Evelyn to come with them."

"Did she do it?"

"Well, Princess Evelyn had a problem. She had to choose between Prince Vincent and her friends, Ronald and Sir Harold."

"What did she do?"

"She thought. Long and hard. But she honestly didn't know what to do," she said, suddenly losing her confidence and curious about the girl's thoughts. "What do you think she should do?"

"Go and fight of course! Why couldn't prince Vincent stay also to fight?"

"He had to rule his country," she mumbled, not sure why Victor couldn't help and fight.

"Chicken," Evelyn mumbled. Hermione continued as if she hadn't heard.

And then – She still didn't know if it had been the best decision,— she found fighting at Ronald and Sir Harold's sides to be more important at that moment. So she chose to go with Ronald and Sir Harold. She asked to Prince Vincent if they could just be friends for the moment. And Prince Vincent, noble as he was, understood."

"He understood? Wasn't he mad that she didn't want to be with him?"

"Well, he understood that Princess Evelyn wanted to fight first."

"But... but... he loved her! How could he let her go?" Hemione stared at Evelyn for a moment, as if she was the daughter of her doubts and hesitations in her head. How quickly could that girl change her mind? A moment ago she had told her that Evel- no, Hermione- had to fight.

"Because he didn't know for sure if she loved him back! And he understood that she needed to be with her friends first," Hermione answered. The memory of saying goodbye to Victor had just appeared into her head and she felt guilty all over again.

"So they didn't live happily ever after?"

"I think Princess Evelyn and Prince Vincent did live happily ever after, just not with each other. Prince Vincent would find another princess, one who was probably more beautiful and could really love him back. And Princess Evelyn would fight for a long time, but then would win."

"But would that stupid Sir Ronald ever notice her? Would he ever like her?"

"Well, not at that point. I'm not sure if Princess Evelyn and Sir Ronald would ever love each other. But they were still best friends, and at that moment, they just had to fight for Sir Harold."

"I bet they will come together!" said Evelyn, waving her hands energetically. "I bet he is her true love! He is just too stupid to notice it, yet!"

Hermione started to laugh.

"I don't think so, Evelyn. Princess Evelyn and Ronald are just friends, for that moment. And besides, they're so different... I hope Princess Evelyn her feelings for Ronald will fade, and that she will start to like someone else."

"Of course not! Besides, who else could she marry?" Hermione frowned.

"You go sleep now, and think of another prince Princess Evelyn could marry."

She tucked Evelyn in, kissed her good night, and walked to the door. By the time she had reached it, she heard Evelyn mumble angry: "I still think it's Ronald….."

Hermione went downstairs and sat on the sofa, a bit confused. She had already made up her mind about where to go this summer, but somehow, Evelyn had made her a bit hesitant. Was she really abandoning Victor?

She could easily go to Victor's place in a few weeks, and have a wonderful summer, as he had proposed in that letter. But she also knew that if she had understood Ginny's letter from a few days ago correctly, Ron and his parents were going into hiding any moment now. She couldn't leave them! Sure, Ron had been a prat last year, but he probably didn't understand how she felt and how much he had hurt her. She never had told him, so how would he know? She snorted, feeling a bit ridiculous. Who would have thought a little girl and a fairy-tale would have made matters more difficult? Weren't fairy-tales supposed to be simple and straight-forward?

Her hand travelled to her bag, from which she withdrew two letters. One was still from Victor, in which he again asked her to come to Bulgaria. The other was from Ron, delivered last night. If a stranger was to read it, they wouldn't get much from it besides how the weather was, how they would move to Snuffles' old house in about a week and how his parents were in constant contact with Dumbledore.

Yet Ron's letter had another layer, one with an invitation to come and help.

Victor's was just a letter with an invitation. She needed to make a decision.

But then, remembering the story she had told, she shook her head and pulled a piece of parchment out of her bag; she had made her decision, and she was going to stick to it. Quickly, she wrote a reply to Ron:

_Dear Ron, _

_I can't wait to see all your new friends and help you with moving in. Let me know when you need any help. I can't write much at the moment: I'm baby-sitting my muggle neighbours' daughter. Hope to hear from you soon. _

_yours, _

_Hermione_

Princess Evelyn was ready to fight.

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_Hoped you liked this chapter too... I'm not very glad about how this pter turned out, but you can only change a whole fanfic so many times before I just get tired and post the thing..._

_Let me know what you thought about this story and if you liked it, you might want to check out some of my other stories..._

_x-mokimik-x_


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